OMELIE / Omelie EN

16 dic 2018

16/12/2018 – 3rd Sunday in Advent - Year C

16/12/2018 – 3^rd Sunday in Advent - Year C 

Reading 1 ZEP 3,14-18 Psalm IS 12,2-6 Reading 2 PHIL 4,4-7 Gospel LK 3,10-18

Shout for joy, be glad and exult with all your heart! The joy is coming from those events that fill up the man's heart, that satisfy him, that fulfill the deepest desires of his, even those that he is not even aware of. The prophet Zephaniah invites the people to begin already enjoying a great joy, because it will witness a special intervention of God, who lifts the condemnation and dispels the enemy, and becomes present among His people! He Himself then, the great and immense God, will be proud of His faithful!

We do not have any difficulties in recognizing that this invitation to rejoice is about the coming of the Lord Jesus: He is the one lifting us from our faults, He is the one defeating our enemy, He is the one who is present among us, He is the one being proud of His disciples and resting with them. We enjoy and rejoice then because we can see this promises have been already fulfilled, but we rejoice even more because they are repeated to us and renewed: the celebration of the coming of Jesus, in fact, can still add something else to our life. We have welcomed Him, but there are spaces He can fill, within us and in our family, in the community and in society.

The prophet's words are those that Mary herself has received in the Angel's voice, those that have troubled her: she understood that such a great joy would have upset all the plans for her life. Joy, in fact, opens the heart to TAKE IN, that is to say to include, other realities, other people and situations. When we are happy, Saint Paul notes in the Second Reading, all men can see our friendliness, and they will come close and listen to us!

When we rejoice a lot of things change: even our relationship with God becomes freer and more peaceful. We will be able to put in front of Him even the most difficult situations, the desperate ones. With joy in the heart our prayers and requests will become thanksgiving, because we can see on God's face the desire to grant us what we need, to make our joy even greater by letting us see that Him, the immense and almighty God, takes our desires seriously, because He is our Father! There will be no more upsetting situations, that will make us despair, because we will be able to trust: even if our intelligence cannot see any solution, we will know that we cannot put limitations to God's! We will be able to continue to rest on the Father's promise, which is fulfilled by the Son who is coming, who is coming for us!

John wants to prepare us for His coming. He suggests everyone who asks, even the Publicans and the soldiers, groups repelled by the right-thinking, behaviors that change their lives and the society. John's suggestions refer to a spirit of poverty and humility, meekness and respect towards others: whoever welcomes this lifestyle will be ready to the important and final meeting, the meeting with Jesus! John introduces Him to us as "one mightier than I" and who baptizes "with the Holy Spirit and fire". The baptism in which Jesus will dip us is different from His baptism. John washes and cleanses with water and prepares for great changes by preaching, preparing the ground for Jesus’ work, who, instead, will make sure that God’s very Spirit enters deep within men! God’s Holy Spirit burns, enlightens, warms up like the fire. Jesus then will give new life, changing the man from within: He will not start political revolutions! The difference between Jesus and John is big: the latter is not even worthy to attend for Him even to the slaves’ tasks, however, his role is an important one: in fact, he keeps the waiting active and he identifies Him as the final judge, the one who needs to be listened to by everybody.

During this Advent, even if we are already disciples of Jesus’, let us put ourselves in the shoes of whoever is waiting for Him, as if we have not welcomed Him yet. We should not really take for granted that we know everything or that we already love enough, because Jesus is always worthy of way more, He is always the strongest, the greatest, and His work for us will seem new, because He will still have more to burn, more to judge. He will find weed mixed with actual grain in our heart, in our thoughts and in our works.

The ministry of John it is necessary for us as well. We listen to Him, and with humility we set out to change behaviors and situations we are used to. Jesus will then be able to dip us (that is to say baptize us) in His Spirit, and we will have the deep joy which the apostle and the prophet invited us to!